Every team gets pumped up for games against teams within their own division, even those teams with poor records and
nothing to play for.
One of my favourite
bets is taking teams to split their two games versus divisional opponents, so which ever team won
the first game, i will bet them to lose the second one, no matter where it is played.
This
was something i noticed long ago, not only in the pro game, but even while i was playing in high school, when it
comes to divisional games against familiar opposition watch out, don't
underestimate your opponents desire to get revenge on you if
you are one up on them.
When it comes to teams with poor records playing a divisional opponent
with a better record, the poor team has nothing else to look
forward to but kicking the better ranked divisional opponents ass and build confidence for the future, while
the better ranked team might be looking ahead to a playoff run, and wanting
to avoid an all out interdivisional dogfight.
This is a solid play that will make money over time,
you will usually get a big price on the money line in these situations,
if the team that lost the first game is an underdog in the second game, or playing on the road, home advantage
means much less in this situation if the road team won the first
game, the visiting team will be motivated to return the favour.
Be weary of betting the divisional
chump, the 0 for opponents punching bag team, usually there is one in each division,
look instead at those teams that have won a divisional game on the season
